The present invention relates to a support assembly for connecting one or more mooring lines to a floating vessel, such as a loading buoy or a floating production storage and offloading (“FPSO”) vessel. In particular, the invention relates to a support assembly which is pivotable about two generally perpendicular axes to thereby minimize bending fatigue on the mooring lines.
Mooring line support assemblies are commonly employed to releasably secure a mooring line to a floating vessel. For example, a chain support assembly is used to releasably secure an anchor chain to a vessel. However, when the vessel pitches and rolls, the anchor chain bends relative to the chain support assembly, and this bending can induce significant bending moments in the anchor chain which can cause it to fatigue and fail.
Therefore, prior art chain support assemblies often include means to pivotally connect the chain support assembly to the vessel so that the chain support assembly can oscillate about a horizontal axis. Although such chain support assemblies reduce the bending moments on the anchor chain in a direction perpendicular to this axis, they are not capable of reducing the bending moments on the anchor chain in a direction parallel to the axis. Therefore, a few chain support assemblies have been developed which allow them oscillate about two perpendicular horizontal axes. However, while these chain support assemblies are capable of significantly reducing the bending moments on the anchor chain, they are often complicated in design and, therefore, difficult and expensive to construct.